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CNN Live At Daybreak
New York Hospitals Face Massive Effort in Days To Come
Aired September 12, 2001 - 07:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: s you join us right now, I am struck by the image you see behind me. We're going to get a, try to get a tight close-up of this, the what is left of the World Trade Center still smoldering this morning, the cloud shrouding the Statute of Liberty, one of the most powerful symbols of this great city.
Right now we're going to check in with Gary Tuchman, who joins us on the phone to give us an update on what some of the area hospitals are facing right now in trying to treat the untold numbers of New Yorkers injured yesterday -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, first things first. I'm about as close as you can get to where the World Trade Center used to be, that you're allowed to be at right now, about two blocks away from the where the World Trade Centers used to stand. And here's some important information we just found out. I just talked with a medic who had been on the scene for 17 hours. He was just leaving. He was thoroughly exhausted.
He told us as we speak they are in the middle of a rescue of two people who are alive under the rubble, two men. He tells us one of the men is 50 years old. The other man he doesn't know his age, but right now emergency officials are in the middle of a rescue of two people who are alive under the rubble.
And Paula, you were just pointing out the white cloud. We look at the sky. It is a beautiful blue sky. The sun just rose in New York City a short time ago. There's not a cloud in the sky except for the huge sickening cloud that still hangs over where the World Trade Centers used to be.
This part of Manhattan right now, it is just so hard to look at. There are no members of the public here. It's completely shut off only to emergency officials and to the members of the media who have been able to get past checkpoints. But what we see are police, fire officials and then something I never thought I'd see in the streets of New York City -- members of the Army National Guard in full riot gear wearing helmets with sidearms and it's something you see in other countries sometimes, something I've never seen in the United States of America, with all these members of the military standing there and making sure that no one passes by them that's not supposed to.
It's a very hard sight to see, especially for those of us who are so familiar with New York City, a city where pretty much anything goes, where in this part of Manhattan late at night when we were here last night you would see all kinds of people walking around having a good time. And right now it is just a sickening sight for all of us to see what we're seeing here in New York City. We never thought we would see it before.
And literally it's sickening when you see it. It's also sickening when you smell it. We've all been advised to wear masks here because of the fumes that are emanating from where these World Trade Center buildings exploded 22 1/2 hours ago -- Paula, back to you.
ZAHN: Gary, there was tremendous concern last night about the safety of rescuers going in there trying to get to these trapped people. How unstable does this area continue to be?
TUCHMAN: There's still a lot of concern, Paul, but there's obviously an easier situation right now because the fires are basically out. It's still a dangerous situation. The fact is, sadly, the buildings have collapsed, and that was the main concern for hours after this happened, that the buildings were eventually going to collapse, and that's what happened.
So right now they feel they have more freedom to be there. But obviously there is still a lot of problems with just everyone wondering around. So there aren't as many people there as you think there should be at this time. We walked down there, we saw certainly a lot of emergency officials. But right now you have to remember that you're in a part of Manhattan that's landlocked. It's not easy to get lots of rescue officials here and they're saying they have as many as they can deal with right now in that part of Manhattan.
ZAHN: Gary, I know the information is quite murky at this time, but do you believe that these two men that rescuers are in the process of trying to get to are the same two men who had established cell phone contact with their families?
TUCHMAN: We asked a medic that same exact question. He said he did not know if they had established cell phone contact. He was just elated to say that there were two men that they were trying to get at this point.
ZAHN: And any kind of reaction to what appears to be the reality there from rescue workers of the loss of some 250 New York firefighters and perhaps as many as 85 New York police officers?
TUCHMAN: Paula, I've got to tell you, I have seen a number of firemen. I saw one firewoman and a I saw a number of policemen crying sitting on a stoop earlier this morning. People realize they have lost a lot of their friends. A lot of people are just sitting there in disbelief. They just can't believe what happened. But the people who have the tears in their eyes and who have been crying obviously know it's true and know it's a real life nightmare.
ZAHN: And I think probably one of the greatest challenges right now for city officials is to try to give us a better grasp on what the total devastation was there. And I think you've made it quite clear because of the difficulty getting into the area we may not know for many days how many people actually lost their lives.
Gary, if you would, we'd love for you to stand by and continue to give us updates throughout the morning because you are, in fact, closer to the rubble than anybody else has ever gotten.
Gary, thanks so much.
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